One Bayside family remembers their two 9/11 losses
BY JULIA MORO
Michele Miller dropped
her 3-year-old daughter off
at preschool on the morning
of Sept. 11, 2001; she remembered
it being a beautiful day
outside. Her brother, Mitchel
Wallace, was an EMT and
court officer from Bayside,
and when she heard the
news of a terrorist attack at
the World Trade Center, she
knew he would be there.
Wallace was 34 at the
time and on his way to work
at the courts. When he got
off the subway in downtown
Manhattan, both planes had
already struck the towers.
“That was always his
thing — helping people,”
Miller said. “If something
was happening, he would
run there. It was just his
personality to help.”
Miller said she wasn’t
at all surprised to hear her
brother was one of the first
responders at the towers. She
remembered feeling relieved
that Wallace was helping
whoever he could amidst the
tragedy — she never expected
the towers to collapse.
“We weren’t even worried.
We were thinking,
‘Thank God he’s there and
helping,’” Miller said. “Nobody
was even thinking in
a million years what would
eventually happen.”
With Wallace’s training
as an EMT, he was doing
anything he could to provide
first aid to the victims
of the attack. The last photograph
ever taken of Wallace
showed him helping a woman
badly injured before he
ran back inside — when the
first building collapsed.
As the day went on, Miller
and her family didn’t
hear from Wallace. Miller
said that photo helped her
and her family know Wallace
didn’t die for nothing
Mitchel Wallace died on Sept. 11, 2001, after running into the first tower to collapse, as he tried to help as many people as possible.
— he died doing what he was
meant to do.
“We just felt really good
knowing that he was there
for a reason, and he helped
numerous people survive,”
Miller said. “He was doing
what he loved to do. We can’t
say it makes it easier, but it
puts it into perspective.”
Miller remembered hoping
for weeks that her brother
was one of the hundreds
of unidentified victims in a
hospital for treatment. Miller
and her family were optimistic,
but after weeks of no
sign of Wallace, they all had
to come to the conclusion
that he had passed away and
his body wouldn’t be recovered
under the rubble.
Not only did Miller lose
her brother, but she also
lost her dad in 2016 due to
lymphoma, one of the cancers
caused by the enormous
clouds of dust and smoke
from the burning debris
at Ground Zero. Kenneth
Wallace worked across the
street from the twin towers.
Kenneth was able to make it
out of the chaos on 9/11, but
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.8 COM | SEPT. 10 - SEPT. 16, 2021
couldn’t escape the toxins in
the air as he went to work in
the years to come.
“He was a secondary casualty
to 9/11,” Miller said.
“They told everyone that the
air was fine and that they
could go back to work. Guess
what: that was not the case.”
As Miller and her family
look to the 20th anniversary,
Miller just wants everyone to
remember that day and the
contributions so many brave
people made. However, she
also dreads this time of year
as images and stories of the
tragedy are hard to escape.
“People shouldn’t forget
and kids should learn about
it in school,” Miller said. “At
the same time, when someone
like myself who lost a
family member, seeing these
pictures and all I want to do
is get the weather, for us it’s
a trigger. But I want their
stories to be told — you don’t
want them to die in vain. Every
year we listen for Wallace’s
name to be called,
and at least for that moment
in time, people are thinking
about him.”
Michele Miller, her two kids, and her brother Mitchel Wallace.